The Saint Peter's Peacocks took center stage on Thursday night as the highlight of the beginning of March Madness, taking down one of the tournament favorites in Kentucky in the very first round.
The result may have shocked the NCAA tournament onlookers, but St. Peter's head coach Shaheen Holloway was not surprised in the least. The four-year head coach was vocal on having every intention to pull off that upset.
Via ESPN:
“Proud of my guys for battling, like we do all year,” Holloway said. “This is something that these guys understand, no disrespect to anybody, but we wasn't coming down here just to lose. We came down here to fight and we did.”
Shaheen Holloway was the guiding voice for the Peacocks, but he emphasized it was the Saint Peter's players who truly stepped up and worked behind the scenes to be ready for such a moment. Junior guards Daryl Banks III and Doug Edert both more than doubled their scoring average on the season with 27 and 20 respectively to pull off the upset.
“This is about the players,” the Saint Peter's coach continued. “These guys put up with my nonsense every day in practice. This is about them. I'm so proud of them and so happy for them because these are moments people can't take away from them. These guys came in and took down one of the biggest schools in the country, right? So they are going to remember this moment for the rest of their life. So it's not about me.”
Saint Peter's has punched their ticket to the round of 32 and hold the title of biggest Cinderella of the tournament thus far.